Juvenile Court System

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The United States of American defines juvenile court system differs from the adult court system. For over a century, the US believed that the establishment of a court with a main objective of trying or determining cases involving children was necessary. The States viewed this as a vehicle that would serve the public interest by protecting children and offering a different channel of determining juvenile cases. The introduction of the juvenile court system first began in Chicago in 1899 and began as a new development on the justice and court system. Since introduction, the juvenile court system has faced several modifications due to the dynamics in the law making process and changes in criminal procedures. Other factors that have since contributed to multiple changes in the juvenile court systems are the US Supreme …show more content…
According to Bankowski, (1980), when the juvenile court system was first introduced in my locality (Chicago), the hearing took the form of a conversation between the youth and the judge. There was no legal representation of the defendant. Today the juvenile court hearing procedures have drastically changed. For example, today once a peace officer or a probation officer has a reasonable cause to believe that a minor or a child committed an offence under the state laws or ordinances or state regulations then he or she may be the custodian of the child accused of the offense. It is important to note that, juvenile offenses appear in sealed documents, unlike adults offences which are open to public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act. Schwartz, (1999) explains that The US juvenile court systems allow a child to be released to the guardian, a parent or responsible upon agreement in writing that the relevant person. For some other offenses, the child may remain in custody for 12 hours. The law provides that, the child be detained in a secure place unless the;
1. The child is